The Reading Warehouse

Something is rotten in the state of Denmark, but Hamlet can't be sure what's causing the stench. His rage at his mother's infidelities -- together with his greed for the sensual Ophelia and his dead father's call to revenge a murder most foul -- have his mind in chaos, and he wants to scatter his traitorous uncle's insides across the fields. But was it really his father's ghost that night on the ramparts, or a hell-fiend sent to trick him? Action is hot, he tells Ophelia, who lives shut up in a tower with her longings and lust. Action is courage, and reflection is cowardly. Picking up the knife has the colors of truth. As soon as I hesitate. . . . In this dark, erotically charged, beautifully crafted novel, John Marsden brings one of Shakespeare's most riveting characters to full-blooded life in a narrative of intense psychological complexity.